Kyle Freeland was forced to leave in the middle of a gem on Monday afternoon at Coors Field.
The Rockies’ southpaw had thrown five shutout innings against the Pirates before he exited the homestand opener with an apparent leg injury, which occurred when Freeland was running the bases.
Freeland, who reached base twice via bunt off the Pirates’ Tyler Anderson — once via hit and once via error — went from first to third base on Yonathan Daza’s two-out double in the fifth. But Freeland came up hobbling upon reaching the bag and had to replaced with a pinch runner, Jon Gray.
The former Thomas Jefferson star also missed a large part of the beginning of the season due to a shoulder injury suffered in spring training. But Freeland was trending upward lately, having also thrown a quality start in his last outing, last week in Seattle.
Tyler Kinley then replaced Gray for the sixth inning, with the Rockies leading 2-0.
